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Random Tips and Tools – Facebook

Ok, I know this is supposed to be a blog about personal mindset and the inner game. However, sometimes I think it’s valuable to add other tips and tools when appropriate because tips and tools are also a big piece of life coaching. Therefore, I’ve chosen a day of the week that most people don’t read blog posts anyway (too busy looking forward to the weekend) to share some of my favorite tips and tools.

Facebook

This ROCKS! I know a lot of people are still hesitant to use it and maybe aren’t quite sure how to use it to it’s maximum effectiveness but, whether YOU are a business owner attempting to keep in touch with your existing customer/client base or an individual looking to reconnect with people and know what’s going on in their lives, this tool is great.

Here’s just a few of the features that YOU may not know about or ways YOU can get more out of it:

Groups

Groups have been around on Facebook for years but they have recently gone through a little modification. This is good news. The new features are a welcome addition.

Group status updates appear in your Notifications indicator on the top left of the home page. Group status updates are also sent to your email. The benefit of this is that groups have seen a dramatic increase in interaction. It used to be we’d have to go find the group page and check in on it regularly to see what was going on. Most people would not make that effort so interaction was limited. This is one of the disadvantages of Fan pages and one reason a lot of businesses choose to create personal pages for their business even though this is against Facebook policy. For those that want to be members of groups but do not wish to have these notifications, they can be turned off in your settings.

Groups allow YOU to add people automatically. While this feature is great if YOU KNOW someone wants to be added, most people will get very upset if YOU add them without their permission to groups. It’s always better to ask first. By the way, would YOU like to join my group? Visit us here.

Groups can allow YOU to create a special list of individuals on Facebook that have something in common. Some of the great ideas for groups are families attempting to keep in touch, healing circles for loved ones that are ill, networking groups or clubs, school PTA’s or non-profits, etc…

News Feed

Most people that go on Facebook at least once every couple of weeks know what the News Feed is. Many, however, do not know that there are different options for the feed. The standard default feed shows only the top posts of those individuals Facebook has deemed worthy of showing YOU. Here’s a post showing how YOU can change this setting.

Besides this one setting switch, there are other options. The default goes to Top News. These are the posts that have gotten the most interaction within the last 24 hours generally. Therefore, it does not show a LOT of the posts of your friends. To see a list of all friends posts, click on Most Recent. This will change to a chronological update. The challenge here is that it also shows game updates, friend adds, likes, etc… Of course, this may not be all that bad, just be aware there is a little more noise.

Within the Most Recent, YOU can also choose just to see posts from Pages YOU like, quizzes, photos, etc… YOU can even create specific friend lists and only see updates from those lists. This last feature is very beneficial when YOU have a large list of friends and YOU don’t want to miss the stuff from a smaller group.

Fan Pages

If YOU use Facebook for business, it is critical to have a Fan page. A lot of smaller businesses will create personal profiles rather than fan pages. While there are benefits to having a personal profile over a fan page, it is against Facebook’s Terms of Use and YOU run the risk of being shut down without the ability to retrieve any of your information. In addition, many people do not care for personal profiles used as business profiles and will report YOU if you attempt to friend them.

There are a lot of options for businesses with fan pages. I’ve recently begun incorporating my Fan page with a group page to increase interaction. The fan page would be more of an information source, while the group page focuses on active discussion.

One of the newer benefits of fan pages is that YOU can now “like” other fan pages as your fan page. Once YOU have done that, YOU can interact with those fan pages as your fan page drawing more likes to your page. I’ve done this in the past and started using this again last week. As my fan page, I will post valuable content and comments to other fan pages (nothing about my page whatsoever) and, in just 5 days, I have increased my fan page likes by 40+. One note: I focus on pages that have over 1000 likes already and ones that have similar audiences to my target audience.

Facebook Etiquette

Facebook is about building relationships. The best way to build relationships is to do unto others… Because Facebook allows for easy removal, banning and reporting of abuse, it really is in your best interest to follow these basic etiquette rules.

Do interact and comment on what others are posting. Show an interest and let them know YOU really care.

Do connect with individuals offline when appropriate and possible.

Don’t send mass messages. This results in responses that go out to a whole slew of people and seems to never end till Facebook finally has to step in and shut down the communication.

Don’t add people to groups without their request.

Do add valuable content and mix up your information (skip the one post wonder that is just a link back to your blog over and over again).

Do join groups and participate. This allows more people to get to know YOU.

Don’t send event invites for things that are not truly events.

Don’t send event invites to people that do not live near you. YOU may think your 2 hour networking meeting is worth traveling 2000 miles for but most people don’t agree.

Don’t take anything personally. It’s the internet. It’s easy to get offended. Just remember YOU can unplug anytime YOU want.

Do have fun but avoid the time suck of Facebook games if you actually have a get-to-do list YOU want to complete sometime in the near future.

I hope YOU have enjoyed this lengthy post. I know it is far longer than most I write. I suppose that is why Facebook classes are easily several 2 hour seminars back to back. There are so many things I haven’t even yet touched on. If YOU have a great tip or question about Facebook, feel free to post it in the comments. If YOU like this type of post, let me know and I’ll keep writing them.

Nicole has scaled her own personal mountain to climb out of ordinary. For over 20 years, Nicole Bandes has studied the most effective methods to increase happiness and success in her own life and in business. She has gone on to helped thousands of people in their own personal journeys to reach their goals.
Contact Nicole if you are ready to stop being ordinary and have a guided tour to reach your summit of success.